It was only a month or so into my tenure as editor of Food Manufacturing when an interesting email arrived in my inbox. It was an invitation to take part in a food
and beverage industry tour in Pennsylvania hosted by
the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic
Development.

As a newcomer to the food and beverage
manufacturing industry, I viewed the tour as an excellent
opportunity to immerse myself in the industry and get a
behind-the-scenes look at the ways in which a variety
of food products are processed. And the four-day tour definitely didn’t disappoint.
Included were stops at Knouse Foods — Pennsylvania’s largest fruit processor —
Wolfgang Candy Company and Martin’s Potato Chips.

So when a similar opportunity presented itself toward the end of 2016 — this
time in Virginia via the Virginia Economic Development Partnership — it made perfect
sense to have a member of the FM editorial staff participate. Senior Reporter Meagan
Parrish spent a few days crisscrossing Virginia by bus and plane to get an inside look
at some of the state’s top food and beverage manufacturers.

Her recap of the tour, which serves as the cover story in this issue, provides a
glimpse at Virginia’s food and beverage scene — which employs more than 35,000
people and is responsible for more than $25 billion in direct economic output,
according to the VEDP. Included were stops at Sabra Dipping Company and a trio of
breweries — Stone Brewing, O’Connor Brewing Co. and Pale Fire Brewing Co. — as
well as Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA, Wanchese Fish Company and Shenandoah
Growers.

We hope you enjoy the story, which begins on Page 14. And, as always, thank you
for reading.

Showtime: ProFood Tech

Among the regular stops for FM on the tradeshow circuit are PACK EXPO
(International and Las Vegas), PROCESS EXPO and the Food Safety Summit. In early
April, ProFood Tech will be added to the list.

The inaugural ProFood Tech takes place from April 4-6 at McCormick Place inChicago. According to a ProFood Tech news release, the show is “the only event inNorth America focused exclusively on all food and beverage sectors, featuring 6,000processing professionals, more than 400 of the world’s top suppliers, 150,000 netsquare feet of exhibit floor and 45 hours of blockbuster educational programming.”“The North American market has been underserved when it comes to food andbeverage processing events,” Chuck Yuska, CEO and president of PACK EXPO producerPMMI, said in the news release. “ProFood Tech brings the collective resources of threeof the world’s top show producers — PACK EXPO, Anuga and the International DairyFoods Association — to ensure that is no longer the case.”Be sure to check out the March/April issue of FM for preview coverage of ProFoodTech.

Feel free to drop me a line at jesse.osborne@advantagemedia.com and be sure to
check out www.foodmanufacturing.com for the latest industry news, feature articles,
Q&As, videos, blogs and more.